bread and butter

Noun

bread and butter sg or pl

1. (idiomatic, plural, singular) That which is central or fundamental, as to one's business, survival, or income; a staple or cornerstone.
   • They will do some machining if you ask them, but sheet metal has always been their bread and butter.
   • “There’s a big lockout at the foundry.” / “Lockout, what!” cried several. / “Sure as blazes, boys; just when the procession was passin’ I takes a squint at the big foundry door, and there I seen it writ, as clear as sunshine with a hole through it, on a bit o’ paper, that the ould foundry’s shut...1890, N[athan] H[enry] Chamberlain, chapter I, in What’s the Matter? or, Our Tariff and Its Taxes, Boston, Mass.: De Wolfe, Fiske & Co. […], page 13
2. (idiomatic, plural, singular) The basic requirements of living, such as food and housing.
   • What the nation, like the man, earns for itself by the honest labor of its people—when a man exerts himself to anything in an honorable calling—he is said to be earning his bread and butter, which includes his food and clothes and house-rent and all the rest of the thing [sic] he pays for. Now, if...1897, Annual Report, Volume One, Ontario Department of Agriculture
3. (plural, singular) Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see bread, butter.
   • The bread-and-butter were good enough, but the ale poorish.1862, George Borrow, Wild Wales
   • [I]n the centre stood an enormous table laid for tea—four cups and saucers, piles of bread and butter, crumpets, coconut cakes and a large plum cake with pink icing.1934, P[amela] L[yndon] Travers, “Laughing Gas”, in Mary Poppins (Mary Poppins; 1), London: Gerald Howe Ltd […], →OCLC, page 31

Interjection

1. Said when two people walking together are temporarily separated by an obstacle in order to indicate that they belong together.
   • Should this happen, retrace your steps to the point of separation if you wish to counteract the spell. Or, say the words "bread and butter."1989, Vergilius Ture Anselm Ferm, Lightning never strikes twice (if you own a feather bed):, page 238
   • Peter Bartis, at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, explains, “Bread and butter go together, a sign of unity.” He finds a citation in the seven-volume Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore: “If two persons are walking and they come to ... “When walkers were...2003, William Safire, No Uncertain Terms, page 46